Jakarta  - An Indonesian governor pushing the construction of what would be the world's longest road and railway bridge said he hopes work could begin next year on the structure that would link the islands of Java and Sumatra, a news agency reported Monday.

"Hopefully, the initial step can be implemented in early January 2009," the state-run Antara agency quoted Lampung Governor Syachruddin ZP as saying.

A memorandum of understanding for the 29-kilometre bridge across the Sunda Straits was signed in 2007 between the governors of western Java's Banten province and southern Sumatra's Lampung province and representatives of a consortium that is to construct the bridge.

At that time, Banten Governor Ratu Atut Chosiah said feasibility studies would start in 2009 and would take three years. He estimated construction would begin in 2012 with completion expected in 2025.

Syachruddin has worked to speed up the project and told Antara that he would continue to lobby the central government about the bridge's advantages.

The governor has said the 10-billion-dollar suspension project is for a series of bridges traversing three small islands in the Sunda Strait that would support a six-lane highway and double-track railway.

If completed, as many as 160,000 vehicles a day were expected to use the bridge, he said, adding that the bridge would be able to alleviate chronic traffic congestion at the strait as well as significantly cut the journey time between the islands, which takes several hours by ferry.

At this stage, Syachruddin said, around 3,500 vehicles are ferried across the Sunda Straits, carrying as many as 25,000 people daily.

Experts have said earlier that the initiative, which was first proposed more than a decade ago, is technically possible even though the strait lies in one of the world's most dangerous earthquake zones.

Sumatra has been rocked by several significant tremors in the past few months, and more than 230,000 people were killed across the Indian Ocean when a magnitude-9 quake hit off the island in December 2004, triggering a tsunami.

Active volcanoes are also in the area, including Krakatoa, which is in the Sunda Strait and about 50 kilometres from the site of the proposed bridge. It killed tens of thousands of people when it erupted in 1883.

Experts have said about 20 million people crossed the strait in 2006, and the figure is forecast to double by 2020. (dpa)